The Same River Twice

Watched it as research for a film I'm producing...I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you have the chance to check it out I think you'll also find it to be a worthwhile explanation of a community trying to find meaning and purpose in their lives.

Ladies and gentlemen… naked hippies! Enjoy! Okay, that said, I have to say this documentary, a sequel to filmmaker Robb Moss's 1978 documentary, "River Dogs," catches up with his fellow former Colorado river guides in the present day. It's been compared to Michael Apted's "7Up" series, but it plays more like a real life "Big Chill," minus the soap operatics of a full-blown reunion, but, alas, complete with (thankfully few) existential musings on these fifty-somethings transitions from just-out-of-college wandering river rats, to successful politicians, fitness gurus and… well… river rats. Yeah, I know, life is just a long strange trip for the flower children turned `yuppie scum,' and yet, the film still comes off like a hilariously funny and occasionally sad little story about human beings. Go figure.

Where has the time gone? Those thoughts raced through my mind during this compelling all too brief documentary. Hey, if I had been unable to relate to this who would?

Happily, I did and totally enjoyed it. My rebellious contemporaries were fun to observe, then and now, and the film has started some dialog among my long-time friends. While it is striking that two of the five actually had political careers (although small-time), I often wonder how I ended-up seeking the joys (comfort) of a corporate world - and boy was I a rebel (without drugs).

Surely part of my pleasure from the film was it holding a mirror of sorts to me, so I was pre-sold, I was bound to find this story engrossing. As for the film-making, good to see how a very small (relatively) investment could pay off in such high satisfaction, at last for this viewer. Was the budget a reason why the other dozen of the original group 1978 elected not to get involved in the project - ? Updates would be welcome.

This is the movie of all of us in a lot of ways. It follows life from the carefree and uninhibited days of twentysomething to the burdens of fortysomething. With one exception, each of the half-dozen river guides of the 70's grew up, settled down and became entangled in the humdrum, perplexities and small successes of adulthood. Yet in watching film of themselves mostly naked and carefree 20 years earlier there's little wistfulness, nostalgia or regret for the loss of youthful abandon. That was then, this is now. As one woman said, "we did it because we could." But most people can't do it forever and these former river rats have largely found as much adjustment and peace amid mortgages and child-raising as they did floating through the Grand Canyon.

One of the most interesting aspects is the fact that three of them have held elected office, and in fact two are mayors of their small towns. Not what anyone would expect watching them negotiating rafts through the rapids in the early footage.

The filmmakers, and particularly the editor, did a masterful job of letting characters in his documentary reveal themselves. It's a compelling film, not as powerful as "When We Were Kings" or "Don't Look Back", but nonetheless a strong and worthy effort. It was highly recommended by the New York Times reviewer and I concur wholeheartedly. No doubt will be appreciated by middle-aged people who, like myself, were lucky enough to have a few years of completely uninhibited life before being drawn into much more conventional settings.

I was surprised to even find this movie at the video store because it never really found distribution outside the film festivals. You may have to dig around for it but it'll be well worth your trouble. A good, solid eight.

(I have sympathy for the kinds of people who watch this movie and can only focus on the nudity.)

The message of "The Same River Twice" is you're only young once, so you better enjoy it. Watching the five main characters when they're young in 1978 on a nudist rafting trip in the Grand Canyon, and then picking up on where they're at 20 plus years later, is alternately sad and fascinating. The two women, Danny and Cathy, are just amazingly beautiful when they are young, I could watch Danny walk around in the nude all day! Danny keeps her youthful physique into her late 40s when we see her later, whereas time seems to be a little rougher on Cathy. All 5 characters, Danny, Jeff, Cathy, Barry, and Jim, seem to lead rather pleasant lives as they enter their 50s. But their youth is gone, and it's kind of sad. This is the kind of documentary you'd only watch once (it's no "Crumb"), but once is enough.